Circulating miR-30 is related to carotid artery atherosclerosis

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study is to evaluate the relationship of miR-30 with office and ambulatory blood pressure parameters and carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) in patients with hypertension and healthy controls. METHODS: We assessed the expression level of miR-30 in 40 patients with essential hypertension and 40 healthy individuals. All patients underwent carotid artery ultrasonography, and office and ambulatory blood pressure monitoring. Quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) was used to evaluate the expression level of selected miR-30. The miR-30 expression level correlation between blood pressure parameters and CIMT was assessed using the Spearman correlation coefficient. Multiple logistic regression analysis was performed to assess independent association between miR-30 expression level and CIMT. RESULTS: We observed lower expression level of miR-30 (26.01 ± 2.40 vs. 28.26 ± 1.28; p < 0.001) in hypertensive patients compared with healthy control individuals, as well as in increased CIMT group compared with normal CIMT group (25.09 ± 1.84 vs. 27.81 ± 2.37; p < 0.001). miR-30 expression level showed significant negative correlation with 24 h mean SBP (r = -0.51, p < 0.001), 24 h mean DBP(r = -0.316, p = 0.004), office SBP(r = -0.502, p < 0.001), office DBP (r = -0.205, p = 0.068), and CIMT (r = -0.578, p < 0.001), respectively. The odds ratio for CIMT was 0.519 (B = -0.748, CI 95% 0.278, 0.806; p = 0.006). CONCLUSION: Our study suggests that circulating miR-30 might be used as a biomarker for atherosclerosis in essential hypertensive patients.